


A Blank Slate

by BurningLeviathans



Series: Piecing Together the Past [2]
Category: Dark Sector, Warframe
Genre: Gen, i have a lot of feelings about unexplored lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-14
Updated: 2015-01-14
Packaged: 2018-03-07 13:56:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3175440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurningLeviathans/pseuds/BurningLeviathans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hayden discovers a terrifying truth about his past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Blank Slate

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this stemmed from the fact that I pieced together that Hayden's very likely to have been created by the Agency which is HUGE given how little lore we have in Dark Sector, and I'm still screaming over it.

The archive was quiet, as it should be; even if times had changed significantly, a proper archive contained books, scrolls, tomes. Things of physical solidity, not data. Sure, there was an “archive” open for regular Tenno access that allowed for checking and sending messages, communicating across lisets and dojos. But Hayden had come to discover a deeper archive, one that Lotus wasn't keen on sharing with the other Tenno.

That was fine; he didn't need to work them up anymore then they already were most of the time. It was his responsibility to hunt for answers, to piece together what was missing—or being kept from them. Which led him to pulling out books, flipping through old pages and rifling through files, looking for something. 

_“Why are you hiding things from us?”_

_“I'm sure I don't understand what you mean.”_

_“Our memories. None of us can remember anything from a specific point in time, despite how different we all are. Isn't that just the slightest bit weird to you? Or maybe it's not, because maybe we're not forgetting things—maybe we're being kept in the dark. Our memories are being kept from us, and I want to know why.”_

_“Your cryosleep has affected all of you in the same way--”_

_“We all didn't go into cryosleep at the same time, so why is there a hole in our memories the same size?!”_

_“I'm...I'm sorry, Tenno, but I can't answer that for you. Forgive me.”_

Hayden refused to take that for an answer, naturally. Which had led to his hunting around at night, dodging cameras and using every bit of training he remembered, every skill he'd honed, to sneak about and find this place.

He never stayed for longer than an hour; even that was pushing his luck. Every other night he'd come back, start where he'd left off the previous search, but he never found anything important. All the books here were about things he already knew; how Earth was during his lifetime, when he walked around like there was nothing to worry about. Nature books, science books, encyclopaedias. Nothing that would help him.

It took him almost a month to find anything, and when he finally did, the file was beaten, worn out. As if someone had hidden it, then tried to destroy it through various means. But the contents were still intact, thankfully. Someone had taken the time and care to piece it all back together and store them neatly.

He found a corner to sit down in, clicking on the flashlight he'd brought and laid the file out before himself, pushing the sheets around. They were...photos. Grainy images, most likely surveillance type photos, but some of them were of a slightly better quality. Hayden's brow furrowed in slight confusion, picking them up and bringing them closer to look over them. It was...they looked like they were taken in a lab, of sorts. Men in smocks, aprons, wearing surgical masks and gloves, protective gear against some illness or something. There were a handful of metal surgical tables, but in the back, it looked like large, circular tanks.

It was hard to tell, given that the photo's quality lessened the further back in the image an object was. Setting the pictures down after scanning them, Hayden began to note that with each year that passed, given the date in the photos' corners, dark objects grew bigger in those tanks.

It wasn't until he picked up a photo, the corner dated 1982, that things changed. What looked like a baby was brought from the direction of the tanks and set on one of the metal tables, which was covered in a cloth now.

“What the hell..?” Shaking his head, Hayden set the photos down and pushed them all aside, leafing through the papers and scanning over them. Sure, he knew how to read operational reports, official files and whatnot, but these were...these were medical reports, he figured. Something beyond him, anyway. He could only barely scratch information out of them.

_Test embryos three and four viable_  
 _Embryos developing at slowed pace, stable conditions_  
 _Embryo three fully developed, extracted—1982_  
 _Embryo three developed as male, embryo four as female_  
 _Embryo four still developing, further tests will need to take place_  
 _Embryo three will be kept out, proceed with exterior development_

“Embryos...for what..what is this?” A glance at the photos was given, before Hayden immediately snatched one up, squinting and bringing it close to his face, staring at the grainy image of one man that seemed more important than the rest.

“ _Mezner_?” What the hell did he have to do with this? What kind of experiment was going on in these pictures? Where was this? It couldn't be the Agency, that was a military government branch for black ops, not...whatever was going on in these reports.

Setting the photo down, he continued reading through the sheets of paper, his grip around the flashlight only tightening with every few minutes that passed.

_Experimental strain of virus in development—nanobots testing well—subjects introduced to strains not responding positively—tests will conclude until the hosts are viable enough for testing._

The file ended, and Hayden stiffened, getting up and immediately searching for another one, a continued report, before finding it stuffed away, as if hidden. A breath of relief left him, and he sat back down, continued reading, unaware that the dojo outside was starting to wake up.

_Embryo four removed two years after embryo three_  
 _Developing normally_  
 _Both are t'abula rasa_  
 _Positive results for future injection_

“Wait a minute..” T'abula rasa. He'd heard that term before, it'd been in his case file for the Agency, when he'd joined. It was Latin, it meant...shit, what did it mean? _Blank slate_. It made sense that these... _children_ , if they could be called that, were blank slates, given they weren't natural, but...something didn't stick right.

Skipping forward through the reports a few years, Hayden paused, his hand starting to shake. The children had been raised normally, developed normally, and given names. But they looked...dead. They didn't show any expression to their faces, their eyes looked zombie-like.

Cutting through the reports another few years, near the end, and Hayden paused, reading over them. He only stayed for a few more seconds before dropping the sheets, stumbling out of the room and into the corridor that led to the outside door, only to be stopped by a quiet sound.

His hand hesitated over the doorknob, before he turned, staring at the hologram of Lotus. It was always impossible to discern her emotions with that obscuring helmet she wore, but her lips were turned down, and he could tell that she probably wore an accusing, if not upset, look on her face beneath the helmet.

Neither of them spoke, but Hayden didn't give her the chance to be the first. His voice was shaky, and he didn't trust it as his own; it sounded like he was talking underwater, but far away. “What...what was all that?”

For a full thirty seconds, Lotus didn't speak; it looked like she was shifting around on her chair uncomfortably. This angered Hayden, who repeated the question a bit more loudly. “What the hell was that?!”

“Forgive me, Tenno. There are things that were recovered from long ago that I didn't want you finding, for this particular reason. I didn't know how you'd react, or if there would ever be a time for you to know.”

“To know what?! I don't understand--”

“Those files are from your conception, Tenno. You do not hold any memories from your early life because you _had_ no early life. You and Nadia Sudek were both experiments the Agency you worked for sought to undertake once the Technocyte virus had been produced. It was potent on its own, yes, but so many were unable to carry it without showing signs. The virus, as you know, was developed by the United States, but they wanted to take it a step further. They wanted their weapon to create more weapons, biological weapons that could evolve, learn. So they started with you and Nadia.”

“No. No, that's bullshit, that's not true--”

“Your case file said your life before the Agency was a blank slate. They wanted you to know nothing, have nothing, so that they could easily imprint upon you the skills that you learned, the methods that they trained you with. They wanted you to be exactly what they wanted, in every little way. It was the same with Nadia. You both held such potential, and Robert Mezner oversaw the project, watched both of you grow. For a time, it seemed that despite only counting on one, the Agency would get two viable hosts for their virus induced weapon. You showed the best potential by being good at what you did, but then you became unstable.”

He'd screwed up. He'd had a meltdown, caused a lot of people to die, and had been an operational failure, which led to him being thrown in jail for a number of years.

“Mezner was your mentor for a reason, but when you became unstable, you alienated the project. The Agency put you away for a reason, but Mezner was furious. He still saw potential for both you and Nadia, but he couldn't help you, so he took Nadia and defected to Lasria, where he could proceed with injecting her with the virus and creating his new weapon.”

Hayden felt sick to his stomach; the world felt like it was tilting, and his hand pressed to the wall, fingers curling into his palm to steady himself. It was sick, none of it made sense, and yet—yet, it all did.

“Mezner injected Nadia and turned her into Nemesis, but the strain wasn't ready. It didn't take to her as a host as well as Mezner wanted it to, which is why he gave her the Nemesis suit. It would strengthen the strain, make her more powerful, concentrate her power. The Agency saw this as an opportunity to still salvage their project. You were born to become their weapon, Tenno. They sent you after Mezner because they saw the opportunity to have both of their hosts grow, but you showed the most promise when Mezner infected you. He knew their reasoning for sending you after him, so he gave them what they wanted, but intended to either keep you for himself, or kill you before the Agency could retrieve and subdue you.

Mezner had already attempted to become a host to the virus, but the strain they'd tried wasn't good enough, which was why they developed you and Nadia. But you _evolved_. You physically responded to the strain, you _grew_ with it, you became more than human.”

“I became their _weapon_ ,” Hayden croaked out, his throat tight.

“Not a weapon, but more a tool of salvation. You see this as a bad thing, and yet look what good you are doing for us. The Tenno as a race would not exist without you, the universe would be in chaos without you. Robert Mezner tried and failed; Nadia Sudek was not a strong enough host for the virus. But you survived. You survived and thrived, you grew and evolved. The Tenno are protectors, not weapons.”

“I don't want to hear this.” He felt so close to throwing up; he wasn't even a clone of a real human. He was a clone of some _experiment_ constructed in a lab. He was the construct of a fabrication. 

“I can only imagine how hard it is to face this information so suddenly, but you must bear the truth, Tenno. You are not a monster, and even if you'd been a human, you became more than that.” With that, Lotus disappeared, leaving Hayden to a dark, quiet room with his tumultuous thoughts.

 _Hayden,_ he thought bitterly. _My fucking name is Hayden. I can still cling to some piece of humanity, even if I never had it._ The next time he talked to Lotus, he was going to nail what his name was into her brain.

Maybe now he'd be able to connect with the other Tenno a little better, knowing that he had never been human to begin with. But for now, he didn't want to see any of them; so he sank to the floor, his arms wrapping over his head, eyes closing. Only Lotus knew where this place was; no one would find him. It would take him awhile to come to terms with what he'd learned.


End file.
